THE IRISH BRIGADE
"EVERYWHERE AND ALWAYS FAITHFUL"
Pride and sorrow struggle for mastery at the spectacle of troops
returning to camp from the battle, their appearance telling of the
intolerable strain which this war imposes, even in the case of
victory, upon the human faculties. The thought of it alone is painful
to the feelings of any one who has the least imagination. They are all
begrimed and careworn, and many have the distraught look of those who
have seen and suffered terrible things. So the Irish Brigade came back
from Guillamont and Guinchy, on the Somme, in the early days of
September 1916, what time the Empire was resounding with the fame of
their exploits. On a Sunday they carried Guillamont with a rush; on
the following Saturday they literally pounced upon Guinchy, and in
between they lay in open trenches under continuous shell fire.
I saw the Irish Brigade before they left for the Front, and noted in
the ranks the many finely shaped heads and thoughtful faces of poets
and leaders of men, interspersed with the lithe frames of athletes and
the resolute, hard-bitten countenances of born fighters. At first I
was moved to sorrow at the thought of the pass to which civilisation
has come that the best use which could be made of all this superb
youth and manhood in its valiancy was to send it forth into the
devouring jaws of war. Then I perceived that something like a
radiance shimmered about the marching ranks. It came, I noticed, both
from their muscular strength and their martial ardour, for the flush
of battle already mantled their cheeks, and its light was in their
dancing eyes; and at once I understood that if I saw but the mound
surmounted by the little wooden cross in France, and in Ireland the
desolate hearthstone, they, with the wider and more aspiring
imagination of youth, rejoiced that they were going out to fight in
liberty's defence, and saw only their bayonets triumphantly agleam in
the fury of the engagement. Careless and gay, they captured the two
villages on the Somme in a ding-dong, helter-skelter fashion. They
maintained the reputation of the Irish infantry as "the finest missile
troops in the British Army" (so they are described by Colonel
Repington, the renowned military correspondent of _The Times_), by the
spirit and dash of their charge, their eagerness to get quickly into
touch with the foe, and the energy and dexterity with which they wield
that weapon which finally decides the issue of battles--the bayonet.
As they emerged out of the cloud of smoke on the Somme, and marched
back to camp in much diminished numbers--caked with mud, powdered with
grey dust, very tired--across the ground their valour had won and
their grit maintained against fierce counter attacks, they displayed
quite another phase of the Irish nature--its melancholy and its
mysticism. The piper that led them back began to play some old Irish
rhapsodies having that wonderful blending of joy and grief which makes
these airs so haunting. That was well. For the men were in so extreme
a stage of exhaustion, physical and mental, that they lurched and
reeled, and were overwhelmed with distress at missing many beloved
comrades that fought with them, and officers that led them only a few
days before. Then they heard the pipes, and their hearts were
uplifted by the strains, plaintive and yearning, defiant and
challenging, which expresses in music the history of their race. They
seemed, indeed, to have caught even some of the jaunty, boastful
swagger of the piper, as he strode before them, blowing into his reeds
and working the bag with his left elbow.
The General of the Brigade watched his troops go by, and in his eyes
they were all the grander for the horrid disarray of their torn, muddy
and bloody uniforms, and their haggard faces blackened with sweat and
smoke and soil. "I am proud of you," he called out in a voice surging
with emotion. "Ye did damned well, boys." A handful of men, once a
company, was led by a sergeant. Every officer was gone. "Bravo,
Dublins!" exclaimed the General; but for the moment his heart was
heavy within him as he recalled to mind the dashing, gallant young
lads, so hearty and joyous, buried now round about the ruins of the
villages from which the Germans had been driven at the bayonet-point
by the splendid rank and file at whose head they fell. Quickly the
thoughts of the General came back to the survivors. "Ireland is proud
of you, boys," he cried in exultant tones. He knew that would stir
them. Ireland is their glory; and they lifted up their heads a little
more as they caught the import of their Commander's words.
This Irish Brigade, officially known as the Irish Division, was the
outcome of the meeting in Dublin addressed by Mr. Asquith, shortly
after the outbreak of the war, in the course of his tour of the
country as Prime Minister to explain the origins and aims of the
conflict. Lord Wimborne, the Viceroy, presided. The Lord Mayor of
Dublin and mayors of most of the chief towns of Ireland, the chairmen
of county councils and representatives of all shades of political and
religious opinions were present. Mr. John Redmond proposed, at the
meeting, the formation of an Irish Brigade. While "Irish Division"
sounds meaningless to young Irishmen, "Irish Brigade" at once arouses
thrilling memories of the battlefields of Europe during the eighteenth
century. For a hundred years, from the fall of the Stuarts to the
French Revolution, there was an Irish Brigade in the service of
France. It was regularly recruited from Ireland through that long span
of time, though to join it was a penal offence. As the young men stole
secretly away to France in smuggling crafts from the west of Ireland,
they were popularly known as "the wild geese." "Everywhere and always
Faithful" was the motto bestowed on the Brigade by the King of France.
That being so, there was a hearty response to the call for a new Irish
Brigade to serve again in France, and for causes more worthy than the
old.
Just as the Ulster Division was composed of Unionists and Protestants,
the Irish Division was recruited mainly from the Nationalist and
Catholic sections of the population. The Nationalist Volunteers,
supporters of the policy and aims of the Irish Parliamentary Party,
provided most of the rank and file. Like another Irish Division, the
first of Ireland's distinctive contributions to the New Armies, which
perished in the ill-starred expedition to Gallipoli, the Irish
Division was composed of the youth of Ireland at its highest and
best--clean of soul and strong of body, possessing in the fullest
measure all the brightest qualities of the race, the intellectual and
spiritual, not less than the political and humorous.
One of the first to join was Mr. William Redmond, M.P. for East Clare,
younger brother of the Irish Leader, though he was well over the
military age. He was appointed Captain in the Royal Irish
Regiment--the premier Irish regiment--in which he had served
thirty-three years previously, before his election to the House of
Commons. Speaking at an early recruiting meeting, he said that, should
circumstances so demand, he would say to his countrymen "Come" instead
of "Go." He was as good as his word. For his services at the Front he
was promoted to the rank of Major, and has been mentioned by
Field-Marshal Haig in despatches. Other nationalist Members of
Parliament who were officers of the Brigade were Captain W. Archer
Redmond, Dublin Fusiliers, son of Mr. John Redmond, Captain Stephen
Gwynn, well known as a man of letters, who joined the Connaught
Rangers as a private and was promoted to the rank of Captain in the
battalion; Captain J.L. Esmonde, Dublin Fusiliers, and Captain D.D.
Sheehan, Munster Fusiliers, who also gave his two boys to the Brigade.
General Sir Lawrence Parsons, son of the Earl of Rosse--scion of a
distinguished Irish family resident for centuries at Birr, King's
Co.--was appointed to the command of the Division.
Sir Francis Vane, an eminent Irish soldier of Nationalist sympathies,
who was appointed by the War Office to supervise the recruiting for
the Division, says that never in his life did he witness so
extraordinary a scene as that presented at Buttevant and Fermoy, co.
Cork, where the men first assembled in September and October 1914. "It
reminded me," he says, "of the pages of Charles Lever in the variety
of Irish types answering to the call. There were old men and young
sportsmen, students, car drivers, farm labourers, Members of
Parliament, poets, _litterateurs_, all crowding into barracks which
were totally incapable of housing decently the half of them." They
were dressed in all sorts of clothes, from the khaki, red and blue of
the Services, to "the latest emanation of the old clo' merchants."
That curious assortment of all types and classes was the rough
material out of which was fashioned, by training and discipline, a
superb military instrument. The soldierly essentials were there in
abundance. Within two years they came successfully through ordeals
that would have tried the nerves of the toughest veterans of the Old
Guard of Napoleon.
In the course of 1915 the Division was removed to camps at Aldershot
to complete their training. The men were visited there, in November,
by Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, who gave them his
benediction, and said he was sure they would do their duty at the
Front "as good children of Ireland and good sons of the Catholic
Church." Early in December they were reviewed by the Queen. It was
originally arranged that the review should be held by the King, but
his Majesty, on a visit to the Front, had been flung from his horse,
and was not sufficiently recovered from the accident to be able to be
present. Among those in the reserved enclosure surrounding the
saluting-base that day were Mr. John Dillon, M.P., and Mr. T.P.
O'Connor, M.P. In the march past the Queen they were led off by the
South Irish Horse, a body of Yeomanry. Each of the three infantry
brigades was headed by one of the Irish wolfhounds which Mr. John
Redmond presented to the Division as mascots. At the conclusion of the
review her Majesty sent for General Parsons and the three
Brigadier-Generals, and congratulated them upon the appearance and
efficiency of the troops.
Shortly afterwards the Division left for the Front, under the command
of Major-General William Bernard Hickie, C.B., an Irishman and a
Catholic, who has had a very brilliant military career. Born on May
21, 1865, the eldest son of the late Colonel J.F. Hickie of Slevoyre,
Borrisokane, co. Tipperary, he was educated at Oscott and Sandhurst.
At the age of nineteen he joined his father's old regiment, the 1st
battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, of which in due course he became
Colonel. In the South African War he served on the Staff, in command
of a mounted infantry corps and of a mobile column. On his return home
he became Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General to the 8th Division.
In 1912 he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster-General of the Irish
Command. On the outbreak of the war General Hickie became Deputy
Assistant Quartermaster-General of the Second Army, and is stated to
have particularly distinguished himself maintaining good order during
the retreat from Mons. The Irish Brigade was most fortunate in having
such a man as Commander. Thoroughly understanding the Irish character,
its weak points as well as its strong ones--its good-humoured and
careless disposition; its impatience often of the restraints and
servitude of military life; its eagerness always for a fight or any
sort of enterprise with a spice of danger in it--he was able to get
the most out of his men. One of his happy thoughts was the institution
of a system of rewards in the Division apart from but supplementary to
the usual military honours. Any company officer or man who, in the
opinion of the commander of his regiment, has given proof of
exceptional good conduct and devotion to duty in the field, is
presented by General Hickie with a Parchment Certificate at a parade.
The certificate has been specially prepared in Ireland, having the
words "The Irish Brigade" in Gaelic letters enwreathed with shamrocks
at the top, setting out the name of the recipient, the nature and date
of his achievement, and the signature of the General. The men send
these certificates home, where they are preserved as precious
mementoes. An Honours Book of the Irish Brigade is also kept in which
these presentations and the military honours won are recorded.
The first experience which the Irish Brigade had of the trenches was
in the Loos-Hullock line. It is the most desolate of the war-stricken
regions, one bare, black, open plain, where everything has been blown
to pieces and levelled to the ground, save here and there some wire
entanglements; where there is no sign of human life, except when
parties of the thousands upon thousands of combatants who burrow
beneath its surface, emerge in the darkness of the night for stealthy
raids on each other's positions. The front line trenches of both sides
run close together. At one point they are no more than sixteen yards
apart. They are notoriously of the worst type, nothing more, indeed,
than shallow and slimy drains, badly provided with dug-outs, and much
exposed to fire. Under such conditions the craving of the body for
food and rest could be satisfied only at the bare point of existence.
Major William Redmond, in a letter to Dr. Fogarty, Bishop of Killaloe,
dated February 3, 1916, says: "Our first spell in the trenches was for
twelve days, and in that time we had no change of clothing, just
stayed as we were all the time. The shelling was terrific, and the
Division suffered some losses. The day before we came out the enemy
began to celebrate the Kaiser's birthday, January 27, and we were
shelled without ceasing for twenty-four hours. The men of our Division
behaved very well, and received good reports; so the General said."
Testimony to the excellent way in which the Irishmen passed through
the ordeal comes from quite independent and impartial sources. Here,
for example, is an extract from a letter written by the Rev. H.J.
Collins, chaplain to a battalion of the Black Watch--
"Our Division had the privilege of introducing the Irish
battalions to the trenches, when they arrived out here; and they
were our guests for a week or so before taking over on their own
account. They made a great impression on our lads by their
cheerfulness and their eagerness to be 'up and at' the Hun. The
Connaughts arrived one evening just as our line was being
heavily shelled, and although they were our visitors they at
once took charge of the situation. They had never been in the
trenches in their lives before; they were experiencing shell
fire for the first time; and before they had had time to get
their packs off and settle down, one impatient sergeant was over
the parapet, crying out in a rich and musical brogue: 'Come on,
the Connaughts!'"
As is well known, the men of one regiment are not greatly disposed to
praise those of another. In fact, some bitter regimental feuds exist
in the British Army, or used to among the old Regulars. It is,
therefore, all the more remarkable to find in the _Glasgow Herald_ of
February 24, 1916, a letter signed "Jock," proclaiming in the warmest
terms the fine qualities of the new Irish soldiers. "Your readers may
like to hear that we Scotsmen, who have been tried and not found
wanting, have a great admiration for the new Irish Division that came
out some time ago," says "Jock." "We have lived in the trenches side
by side with them, and find them as keen as a hollow-ground and as
ardent as a young lover. At a recent attack when the Germans were
advancing the excitement became unbearable, and one sergeant got up on
the parapet with the shout of: 'Come on, bhoys, get at them.' One of
them, too, was heard to grumble, 'Here we've been in th' trinches fur
two weeks an' niver wance over th' paradise.' It is to be feared they
will outvie even the kilts."
Yet during this instructional period, when the various battalions of
the Brigade were attached to other regiments for preliminary practice
in the trenches, some high military honours were won. Sergeant J.
Tierney, of the Leinster Regiment; Lance-Corporal A. Donagh, and
Private P.F. Duffy, of the Connaught Rangers, gained the Distinguished
Conduct Medal. Donagh and Duffy, in response to a call for volunteers,
undertook to carry messages forward under heavy fire, as all
telephone communication had been cut. The task was one of extreme
danger, but the men succeeded in accomplishing it unhurt, and were
awarded the D.C.M. for their coolness and bravery. Corporal Timoney,
of the Munster Fusiliers, was especially mentioned in Army Orders for
an act of courage in picking up and throwing away a live Mills-grenade
which had fallen among some men under instruction. By this act he
undoubtedly saved the lives of several men, and if it had happened in
the field instead of at practice he would have been eligible for
recommendation for a higher honour.